To Do Lists

I don't know about you, but sometimes I think my "to do" list is over running my ancestors!

It used to be simple in the beginning. I was simply looking at a pedigree sheet and trying to fill in the names with their dates and parents. Seemed simple to me back then. I would call someone up, ask a question, get an answer, and then fill in a line on the sheet.

Then I found out about family group sheets. Ok, I admit, I really liked them. They had more information, and seemed more interesting to me. So.... I went back to those same relatives (I was a teenager then), asked a few more questions, filled in a few more lines (like the names of my ancestor's children and where they went to church), and felt really good about this past time of genealogy and thought of it as fun, easy to do, and very information limited.

Now, please understand. I still think its fun and that discovering my ancestry has been one of the greatest things I have ever become involved with besides being part of my alive family. However, now....

There are binders dedicated to family groups filled with census records, city directory information, cousin correspondence, military service, narratives, timelines, cluster studies, research logs, source checklists, and so on.

At this moment I have a small binder filled with my "to do" lists divided by surname and location and type of record, etc.  When did this happen? When did studying my family become its own creation?

My only consolation is in knowing that there is a whole facet of the world out there doing the very same thing, and I LOVE IT!!!!  I would not trade what I do for anything in the world.

Now, lets talk about those people who say their tree is DONE after only 9 months or so, shall we????

Until we see each other again,

Kim